Attendance

[zipboy]

I pulled in attendance numbers for this past season. Overall attendance was very similar to the last 2 years - 3,454 vs 3,593 last year and 3,469 2 years ago. This is more than 20% over the last several years of the Hipsher regime. Given that we were picked for 4th in the East and had our 2 of our most popular players graduate last year, it is good to see the fan base solid. Comparing these numbers to all Div 1 schools, avg attendance of 3500 would put us around 140th out of 341 Div 1 schools - around top 40%. Some notable schools who averaged less than 3500 last year include Colorado, Duquense, George Washington, South Alabama, UCF, and UW Milwaukee. As KD continues to grow the program, on the bright side, talk about the Zips around town is as high as I can remember, we get some fan travel to road games and big games routinely draw 4-5K. But there is a lot of talk about outgrowing the JAR and realistically I don't see attendance changing that much from the mid to high 3K range by playing in the JAR. To get that extra 1,000 people in you are talking abou the casual fan who might go to a couple of games a year. Sightlines are bad, bleacher seats are uncomfortable, half the concessions are closed down, etc. Building a new arena will not guarantee increased attendance, see EMU and NIU below, but having a better place to see games with a better game day experience with winning will see a marked increase in attendance. One last point, I pulled average attendance for all MAC schools for MAC games only. I feel that looking at conference games only gives a better feel of the program since one big OOC game can skew numbers and many students are on break for the holidays. The Zips drew what I believe the be an all time high for MAC games, 4233 on average. One thing I scratch my head with every year is how we draw about 1500 more a game for conference games than OOC games. I expect to draw more due to rivalries and people tend to jump on the bandwagon at the end. But regardless of who we play in OOC, we draw about the same amount. Whether it is Nevada or Temple or Binghamton or NC A&T, we still draw about 2500 fans. I just wonder if NE Ohio will never draw well until January due to football or whatever.Anyway, here are attendance figures for MAC games by school. Overall attendance was 3,007 another decrease similar to the last 2 years. Akron was a strong 4th similar to last year. Clearly there are the haves and have nots.1. OU 6,0442. Toledo 4,9873. Can't 4,3384. Akron 4,2335, WMU 36006. Ball 3,0247. Miami 2,3298. NIU 1,8619. Buffalo 1,78910. CMU 1,68811. BG 1,55812. EMU 881Half the league under 2500 fans is not good. Even when Akron was horrible under the Coleman years and some of Hipsher's years, we only came in under 2200 once. There is always talk about looking at other leagues. The trend for the MAC is not good. I hope that we continue to think bigger and have a long term plan to get out of the league. I just don't know how much the program can grow long term where it is at now. I don't have any answers other than win, win, and win some more. Go Zips!

[timmyboy]

I pulled in attendance numbers for this past season. Overall attendance was very similar to the last 2 years - 3,454 vs 3,593 last year and 3,469 2 years ago. This is more than 20% over the last several years of the Hipsher regime. Given that we were picked for 4th in the East and had our 2 of our most popular players graduate last year, it is good to see the fan base solid. Comparing these numbers to all Div 1 schools, avg attendance of 3500 would put us around 140th out of 341 Div 1 schools - around top 40%. Some notable schools who averaged less than 3500 last year include Colorado, Duquense, George Washington, South Alabama, UCF, and UW Milwaukee. As KD continues to grow the program, on the bright side, talk about the Zips around town is as high as I can remember, we get some fan travel to road games and big games routinely draw 4-5K. But there is a lot of talk about outgrowing the JAR and realistically I don't see attendance changing that much from the mid to high 3K range by playing in the JAR. To get that extra 1,000 people in you are talking abou the casual fan who might go to a couple of games a year. Sightlines are bad, bleacher seats are uncomfortable, half the concessions are closed down, etc. Building a new arena will not guarantee increased attendance, see EMU and NIU below, but having a better place to see games with a better game day experience with winning will see a marked increase in attendance. One last point, I pulled average attendance for all MAC schools for MAC games only. I feel that looking at conference games only gives a better feel of the program since one big OOC game can skew numbers and many students are on break for the holidays. The Zips drew what I believe the be an all time high for MAC games, 4233 on average. One thing I scratch my head with every year is how we draw about 1500 more a game for conference games than OOC games. I expect to draw more due to rivalries and people tend to jump on the bandwagon at the end. But regardless of who we play in OOC, we draw about the same amount. Whether it is Nevada or Temple or Binghamton or NC A&T, we still draw about 2500 fans. I just wonder if NE Ohio will never draw well until January due to football or whatever.Anyway, here are attendance figures for MAC games by school. Overall attendance was 3,007 another decrease similar to the last 2 years. Akron was a strong 4th similar to last year. Clearly there are the haves and have nots.1. OU 6,0442. Toledo 4,9873. Can't 4,3384. Akron 4,2335, WMU 36006. Ball 3,0247. Miami 2,3298. NIU 1,8619. Buffalo 1,78910. CMU 1,68811. BG 1,55812. EMU 881Half the league under 2500 fans is not good. Even when Akron was horrible under the Coleman years and some of Hipsher's years, we only came in under 2200 once. There is always talk about looking at other leagues. The trend for the MAC is not good. I hope that we continue to think bigger and have a long term plan to get out of the league. I just don't know how much the program can grow long term where it is at now. I don't have any answers other than win, win, and win some more. Go Zips!

wow, EMU cant even draw 1000 fans to their games. with such a small amount of people attending the games, how can they afford to fund their basketball program. doesnt alot of the money they make off of attendance go towards the general fund for basketball?

[GP1]

One thing I scratch my head with every year is how we draw about 1500 more a game for conference games than OOC games. I expect to draw more due to rivalries and people tend to jump on the bandwagon at the end. But regardless of who we play in OOC, we draw about the same amount. Whether it is Nevada or Temple or Binghamton or NC A&T, we still draw about 2500 fans. I just wonder if NE Ohio will never draw well until January due to football or whatever.

Two things: First, people like to buy something they are comfortable with. With the MAC, they know what they are going to get. NC A&T? Binghamton? I don't think the average Akronite is interested in looking into these schools or taking the risk they may be really bad and a waste of money.Second, MAC schools can draw local alumni for the visiting team. There are plenty of OU, BGSU and Can't alumni around NE Ohio and they may come to the games and drive up attendance.